Short Takes: Council will consider calling fiscal emergency

CHULA VISTA: Mayor Cheryl Cox has called a special City Council meeting tonight to decide whether to declare a fiscal emergency for years 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Tonight's special meeting replaces a continuation of Tuesday's City Council meeting to decide on budget cuts. That was rescheduled for next week.

All five council members must agree to declare a fiscal emergency for it to be official. Under that designation, the city could call for a mail ballot election asking voters to increase the sales tax rate. The vote could be scheduled as early as May 5.

Chula Vista is facing a $4 million deficit this year and a $20 million revenue gap in next year's budget.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at 276 Fourth Ave. –T.S.

New barrier means
end to Friendship Park

SOUTH COUNTY: The Border Patrol reportedly will close Friendship Park along the U.S.-Mexico border to make space for a triple-wide barrier that will run to the ocean.

The decision was announced at a meeting Tuesday among Border Patrol officials, legislative aides and a few activists, said the Rev. John Fanestil, a United Methodist pastor and executive director of Foundation for Change.

The popular spot informally known as Friendship Park includes cement plazas on each side of the border where people chat and eat together and can interact through openings in the current fence.

Fanestil, who attended the meeting, said Border Patrol officials said there would be no public access to the small park within Border Field State Park after construction of two additional, parallel border fences is complete.

The triple fence, to run for 3½ miles along the border between the ocean and San Ysidro, is to be finished by May. –P.R. and A.P.

Redevelopment agency
to help pay ballpark debt

SAN DIEGO: San Diego's downtown redevelopment agency has agreed to help pay the city's bills.

The Centre City Development Corp. board voted Wednesday to allow $11.3 million to come out of the nonprofit city agency's funds annually through 2013 to cover the city's Petco Park debt payment. Then, in 2014, downtown redevelopment funds will be used to pay $116 million owed to the city from 30-year-old loans.

The loan issue created a political tussle between City Councilwoman Donna Frye and agency officials in recent years. Frye wanted the CCDC to start repaying the loan a few years ago, as the city's pension deficit mounted.

The City Council, sitting as the city's Redevelopment Agency, has ultimate control over the CCDC's funds. Despite Frye's protests, the council in the past has largely approved what the CCDC board suggested.

As the city's budget woes have increased, so has pressure for the CCDC to help.

“I just want to make clear that this is not a deadbeat organization,” CCDC board member Kim John Kilkenny said. –J.S.

San Onofre reactor
shut for maintenance

SAN CLEMENTE: One of two nuclear reactors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has been shut down since Dec. 28 for routine maintenance, a spokesman for the utility that owns the plant said.